


atrox

by shiminari



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, M/M, Zombies
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-19
Updated: 2019-07-19
Packaged: 2020-07-08 09:04:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19867024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shiminari/pseuds/shiminari
Summary: It's 2036, 16 years into the zombie apocalypse, and there are two newcomers in town: the Uchiha brothers.They move in next door to Naruto and only intrigue him with the mysterious aura around them. He doesn't want to force himself into their lives but just can't help trying to find out more and more about them and why they came to Konoha, a safe haven in the middle of nowhere.





	1. 1

The most jarring part of Naruto's Monday morning wasn't that he got ambushed by a horde of zombies, completely out of nowhere. He had barely made it out of there alive. If it wasn't for Shikamaru's quick thinking, he might not have made it back home.

No, he was more startled at the fact that he saw two people moving into the house next door to him.

Naruto he had come back to town tired as hell and soaked in dirt and grime, wanting nothing more than to throw his clothes off and clean himself. But now he had this to think about. Who were they? What had led them to their tiny abode in the middle of nowhere? Were they new, or just moving from another part of town? And if they were new, why were they coming here? And why right next to him?

All of these questions swirled around his mind and yet he had no answers. He looked at them more closely, or at least as close as he could without seeming weird. Both of them had black hair, one with sleek long in a ponytail and the other short and spiked. They both had rather pale skin which was uncommon due to everyone's skin either being dirty as all hell or simply tanned from being outside more often than not. And they both held themselves well. He observed them walking around the house, making small observations here and there, one saying something and the other one either nodding or shaking his head.

Naruto wanted to walk over and give his friendly neighborly introduction and yet he looked down at his clothes and knew better. He should at least clean up, and look presentable, right? Or better yet, sleep and just say hey to them some other time. After all, it wasn't like it was the end of the world if he didn't say hello right then and there. No, the end of the world had already happened, and now they were living through it.

* * *

The year was 2036. Not much had changed in the world, except for everything.

At this point it was hard to say when everything flipped upside down, and what exactly happened. There had been so much time between present-day and when it all began that details became embellished. People over and under exaggerated certain details of stories. Everything had been passed down through word of mouth too, so it wasn't like there was a way to double-check any of this. But here's how the story goes, at least from what Naruto's heard over his few years.

Naruto was a twenty-year-old man in the present day, but when he was no more than four years old the apocalypse started.

It was quick to start. A lot quicker than someone would think. The first cases of zombies were those who had died in car accidents, in hospitals, or by freak accidents. The sight of all of these had caused a mass panic and within the span of just a few short hours, the world was no longer recognizable. The short of it was that a good number of people, but not the majority, were presumably killed and turned into zombies within the first day or so. It was caused by a mixture of chaos from the public paired with the fact that these zombies were fast as hell. No one ever really thought about that.

The public before the apocalypse, for the most part, had assumed that zombies would be slow, dumb things. But in reality, they could do more than just shuffle and groan. If they needed to, the fuckers could run. Now, this came with a drawback, however. If a zombie ran, there was a chance their body was so decomposed that it would collapse or they would lose a limb. Or, their feet would land on the ground at a weird angle and since they didn't have the ability to coordinate their limbs too well, they would just crumble and fall to the ground, unable to move immediately. But if a zombie came after you, you had better run for your life.

Naruto wasn't sure what caused the zombies. He had heard speculation from everyone throughout his entire life and didn't know what to think. There were rumors it was a virus, or a fungus, or some other third thing. A majority of people were convinced that the government had something to do with it, that they were the ones who manufactured the virus and were responsible for its spread. It was confusing and Naruto tried to not listen too much to the gossip; what mattered was that regardless of how they came to be, they were here and needed to be dealt with.

That being said, the apocalypse wasn't all that bad. It wasn't like there was a shortage of defenses. Even if you didn't have a gun, you still had something that could be fashioned into a weapon. The only thing that sucked was that they didn't have many luxuries.

A few times a week, a few traders would come into town to share news and goods. Of course, money was practically worthless so it was hard to strike a deal with the traders, but not impossible. They came usually in groups so that there could always be some sort of defense from the zombies out there. Safety in numbers and all that. The news that they brought usually wasn't all that. Typically it was that there was a new settlement, or that another settlement got torn down by zombies. They had a plethora of maps that had each location carefully detailed and named and even if Naruto didn't trade with them, he still enjoyed looking at them.

The town that he was in was named Konoha, and it was named it for a reason. The town was in a clearing of a forest, surrounded on all sides by trees. Before the apocalypse, Naruto bet that it was nothing more than a small dot on a map. Now, they all called it home. It was on higher ground and hard to navigate to, which meant zombies were less likely to make their way to it. Aside from the one or two strays that magically made their way to the gates, Naruto only ever saw zombies if he went outside of the town.

All around there was a fence that protected the town's citizens, along with a few watchtowers just in case something did end up happening. Usually, there weren't many on watch, however, because it wasn't necessary. And even if a zombie or two did make its way to their small town, what was he going to do? The fence separated them. They were safe. At least, they were safe for the time being.

Naruto had asked one of the traders once about the other towns out there. He had only ever been to Konoha and a very limited number of other towns around the area. The trader informed him that just about every town was in some shape or form similar to Konoha: small, with some sort of border or barrier against the zombies. All of the major cities were wiped out almost immediately and no one wanted to go back after it and clear it out to live there. Instead, they relied on these small towns in the middle of seemingly nowhere to find refuge.

It was an odd way of living, but at least they were still alive.


	2. 2

The thing that sucked the most about the apocalypse was just how boring it all was.

Naruto often found himself leaving town due to this fact. Sure, it was dangerous and he risked his life every time he did so. But did he really want to lead a life sitting inside all day, doing practically nothing?

There were only so many books that he could read without feeling like he was losing his mind just sitting around and scanning his eyes across a book. To add insult to injury, Naruto hated reading in the first place but found himself doing it just to pass the time. He could recite the entire history of the United States from memory, but at this point, nothing about that mattered.

There were only so many games of chess he could lose at with Shikamaru, which at first was fun but as the years passed just grew tiresome. His other friends weren't the keenest, and every game he played with Sakura the two ended up getting somewhat bored and ended up just talking and giving up the game.

And although games like soccer or basketball were fun here and there, he couldn't help but long for something else. And so he would get his gear ready, find whoever that he could round up (typically Shikamaru and Sakura), and make his way beyond the fence and out into the unknown.

But he had just gone out exploring the day before and knew his friends wouldn't want to do it all again so soon, so he sat in his house thinking of something to do. It had been a day since those two men had moved in next door and yet Naruto still hadn't found his way over there to introduce himself and find out more about them. On one hand, he was dying to know about them; it wasn't often that they had someone new in the community.

For one the town was in the middle of nowhere. Two, Naruto didn't think that sixteen years later after the start of the apocalypse that there were really all that many people who needed a place to live. And three, the mayor of Konoha was rather strict and didn't just allow anyone, of course. She would personally meet with them and decide whether or not they'd be a good fit. She needed to know very specific details about their lives and there was no holding back. It was a lengthy conversation that spanned over the course of a day or so. It wasn't easy to trust new people, but she tended to be a good judge of character. And if she didn't think so then she would redirect them to a nearby town within safe walking distance.

The reason for this process was due to the fact that their town was small but well hidden from both people and zombies. She simply didn't like the idea of filling the town with lazy nobodies with no skills to speak of. Her one requirement was that they could provide and help the town out. This could be done in a number of ways: gardening, manual labor, having any skill regarding construction and building maintenance, nature and life skills, willingness to go and scavenge outside the wall, so on and so forth. Many argued that if they had survived this long that they practically deserved a place to stay. That was usually when the mayor would suggest for them to live elsewhere.

But if she had approved for these two men to be let in, they had to have some kind of useful skill or reason to be in town. Naruto was too nervous to actually ask them so instead he thought of the next best thing: go and ask Tsunade himself.

"Granny!" Naruto called out as he knocked on her front door. It was a small house, and certainly not the biggest in town by a long shot. When they had first arrived she insisted she take something smaller to keep her ego in check and to show that everyone in town were equals. It was quaint with white siding and a bright red door, although the paint was starting to peel around the edges and was due for a new coat.

The door flung open and Tsunade yanked him in by the collar. "Stop being so loud, do you hear me, boy?" She shook him a bit, making sure he got the point.

"I only called your name out once!" Naruto objected.

"No, you did not call me by my name, and two, it was loud enough for the whole neighborhood to hear!" Tsunade's brows creased as she looked at him, furious. "Now what is it that you wanted?" She let go of his collar and turned around to start walking to the kitchen.

"Oh! Well, uh, it's about my new neighbors," Naruto started as he smoothed out his collar and patted his shirt down.

Tsunade glanced over her shoulder, a look of concern painted on her face. "Is there something wrong with them?"

"No, that's not it. I just wanted to introduce myself but uh..." Naruto paused as he bit his lip. "They're intimidating. I don't know what to say to them."

"And why are you bothering me about them then? Don't talk to them if you're having this much trouble just saying hello. I'm not going to just sit here in my living room and gossip to you about them."

"Well uh... who are they?" Naruto asked as they entered her living room. Naruto took a seat on an old faded couch while Tsunade sat in her chair next to it.

"They're brothers," Tsunade began. "Their names are Sasuke Uchiha and Itachi Uchiha. Sasuke is the younger one, and Itachi is a few years older than him."

Naruto nodded at this information. "Yeah, they definitely looked related. Any word on their relatives...?"

Tsunade shook her head. "We didn't talk too much about it. If they did have any relatives I don't know if they'd necessarily be traveling together. Their job takes them all over the place, from what they told me. It's very sporadic and messy. Moving from town to town wouldn't be ideal for anyone; from what I've been told and what I've seen from other towns, most if not all people are hostile and wary of strangers. No matter the intention, everyone has their guard up. It's too much emotional stress to put on someone, but the two of them do it," Tsunade shrugged.

"So, uh, what's their job then?" Naruto asked, his eyes curious. "They definitely fuckin' didn't look like traders. They look too polished and smart for that. Most traders that come through are rugged and have a certain look to them," to which Tsunade nodded her head in agreement. To be a trader, one needed to be tough and resourceful. Traveling throughout all the towns in the area was not an easy feat by any stretch of the imagination. Sure, it paid well enough, but at what cost?

"They're both wandering bounty hunters. I don't know how long they'll be here, honestly." Tsunade answered.

"Bounty hunters?" Naruto asked, and she nodded. "But who are they even going after...? Zombies? I really don't think that there are that many people who want their relatives killed. I mean, it's been nearly two decades since this started. Are they going after people?"

Tsunade sighed before replying, "Isn't that a question for them, not me? You're clearly curious enough. You should just go introduce yourself. If you're that curious about their lives, then go and introduce yourself to Itachi first since he seems more social and friendly. Sasuke, on the other hand, is nothing but quiet and angsty."

"Oh, but I bet you know what they do. You have to have some kind of idea on what they do, Granny! You wouldn't have let them into the town unless you did," Naruto objected, getting riled up. "You wouldn't let a bunch of... murderers into the town. Why won't you just tell me?"

"Because it's not my place to be going around and sharing their business with everyone!" Tsunade shouted back at him. "Now you either go talk to them or you don't, but either way get out of my house and deal with this yourself!"

Naruto huffed as he stood up, walking to the front door and closing it behind him. The two of them always seemed to get on each other's nerves, so it wasn't as if this interaction anything out of the ordinary. Ever since they met they were always going for each other's throats, although at the end of the day they still loved and looked out for each other. So it didn't exactly bother Naruto except for the fact he didn't really have too much new information on the two of them... except their vague job.

He felt uneasy knowing that his next-door neighbors might actually... kill people. There were so few people left alive that it seemed wrong. It was hard to get an actual number on a ratio of zombies to people, but Naruto knew the odds couldn't be good. There needed to be more people to take back the world and restore it to its former glory.

Everything that he thought about the Uchiha brothers was all an assumption. He would never know unless he talked to them, and he knew that he definitely should do just that at some point. And so, he found himself walking back towards his house, curious but cautious.


End file.
